You shall make proclamation on the same day that there shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall do no regular work. This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
To rest on the festival of Shavuot
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
וּקְרָאתֶ֞ם בְּעֶ֣צֶם ׀ הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֗ה מִֽקְרָא־קֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם כָּל־מְלֶ֥אכֶת עֲבֹדָ֖ה לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֑וּ
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו לשבות ממלאכה ביום עצרת. והוא אמרו יתברך וקראתם בעצם היום וגו'. (אמור אל הכהנים, זמנים הלכות שביתת יו"ט פ"א):
That is that He commanded us to rest from work on the day of Atzeret (Shavuot). And that is His, may He be blessed, saying, "On that same day you shall call, etc." (Leviticus 23:21). (See Parashat Emor; Mishneh Torah, Rest on a Holiday 1.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a ritual instruction
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Recorded as practiced today
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding
- Conservative Binding
- Reform As the catalog records it: observed non binding
- Reconstructionist Kept as an ethical principle
- Karaite Binding
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls)
- Jubilees 6:17-21 expanded it homiletically
- 11QTemple (11Q19) XVIII-XXIII The catalog describes this reception as: calendrical/sacrificial expansion
Rabbinic aggadah
- Pirqei de-Rabbi Eliezer 41 expanded it homiletically
- Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 1:2 expanded it homiletically
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 2.176-188 read it allegorically
Josephus
- Ant. 3.252-253 described it
The New Testament
- Acts 2:1-4 reinterpreted it Pentecost recast as descent of the Spirit; festival date retained, agricultural/rest content not in view
- 1 Corinthians 16:8 carried a parallel Paul reckons travel plans by Pentecost, attesting continued observance as a calendrical marker
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.